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Jacob Mwero
Pain in the chest is a sign of health problems and regardless of how insignificant, requires medical attention.
The first step in treating and managing the pains is to immediately see a physician, preferably a cardiologist, for testing and investigation because they are symptoms of underlying health problems. In most cases they are a sign of heart attack.
Your physician may ask questions that will help establish the location and nature of the pain including location of the ache, its quality — dull, sharp, pressure-like, stabbing, or throbbing—, intensity and duration, activity undertaken before ache started and the history and consistency of the pain.
The characteristics of chest pains vary depending on origin. For example, a heart attack can cause pressure, fullness, or a crushing pain in your chest that lasts more than a few minutes. The ache may radiate to the back, neck, jaw, shoulders and arms, especially the left arm.
Other signs of heart attack include shortness of breath, sweating, dizziness and nausea.
Costochondritis, a condition in which the cartilage of your rib cage becomes inflamed causing sudden, intense pain may be mistaken for a heart attack.
Pericarditis, is an inflammation of the sac surrounding your heart, usually, characterised by sharp, piercing and centralised chest pain. You may also have a fever and feel sick. Aortic dissection, is a condition in which the inner layers of the main artery leading from the heart separate forcing blood between them, is characterised by sudden and tearing chest and back pain.
Heartburn is a painful, burning sensation behind your breastbone. Often this feeling is accompanied by a sour taste and the impression of food re-entering your mouth.
Panic attacks are indicated by intense fear accompanied by chest pain, rapid heartbeat and breathing, profuse sweating and shortness of breath. Sore muscles muscle-related chest pain tends to come on when you twist side to side or when you raise your arms, and can occur in conditions such as fibromyalgia.
Injured ribs or a pinched nerve can cause chest pain that tends to be localised and sharp.
—The writer is Aga Khan University Hospital’s Cardiology Services manager
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